DRYDEN NY - It looks like Hammond Hill State Forest escaped the worst of the wind and water damage that many other parts of NYS received from the hurricane. We do have some wind damage. There are a lot of small branches and trees down on the trails, most of this can be cleaned up by conscientious trail users if they take the time to do a little each time they are out.  For example, my small exercise group removed 2 medium sized trees with help from my handy little folding trail saw this past Tuesday night.

Send BIG tree locations to me and I will post them here on this forum thread http://canaaninstitute.org/bikeski/viewtopic.php?p=1756#1756 in anticipation of the upcoming fall trail session … so we have kind of a list.

We (”Friends of Hammond Hill”) will be posting a date and time soon (here on this BLOG) for our annual fall trail cleanup. This is in anticipation of the winter recreation season and is traditionally a combined effort of many different trail users: equestrians, mountain bikers, hikers, xc-skiers and so forth.

UPDATE: Date set for trail work session at Hammond Hill: Trail Work Session Sat Oct 15th 2011 at 10:00 am starting at Ann & Charlie Leonard’s house. Their driveway is on the left just before the HH parking lot.

TRAIL number changes AND General TRAIL WORK at Hammond Hill — “Friends of Hammond Hill” is the loose group that has an agreement to maintain the trails at HH with an all volunteer network. These are multi-use trails for hiking, mt biking, skiing, horseback riding, hunting and so thus includes the Ski Club, Equestrian Club, BikeSki, Cycle-CNY and other user groups. Part of what we do is for example is the big trail clean up day starting from Ann’s home in the fall every year (this went well again by the way!). Also in the works at the moment, we (BikeSki) in coordination with NYSDEC are re-tagging all the officially designated trails with new colored disks (ie: R1,R2,Y4 and etc…)

This project is now done! All numbers remain the same except for two changes: the section of mostly east-west trail between B1 and Canaan Rd (west side of Canaan) that used to be labeled Y5 has been correctly relabeled as Y6 — it is labeled Y6 on all the NYS DEC maps and the map on our website and the ski club (CNSC) website already. The section of Y2 north of Star Stanton Rd on the east side of the “MC Escher Loop” was labeled Y3 on some old maps and on some trees in the forest. The erroneous Y3 tags were removed and replaced with Y2 tags to match the current DEC map. Now the yellow tags in both sections match the NYS DEC map. Updated Hammond Hill map from NYS DEC is here http://canaaninstitute.org/bikeskiblog/?page_id=891

If you are on the emial list, then you know some of what is happening, if you are not, send me a message and sign up! Right now we are Hiking on Tuesdays and biking on Thursdays and Sundays. The last few outings a lot of the pics are on Facebook. Add me if we are not friends yet! All my info is in the “about bikeski” page above.

Here is a partial sample of today’s email message …

Sat May 23 — Clean up Canaan Rd Party! Many of you already know Raylene and I bought the property across the street from us. We are getting a huge dumpster and we need help filling it! Details to follow, but here are the basics: Main clean-up starts at 2:00 pm and will go as long as folks have energy. Bring gloves! Music in the evening would be great! DIRECTIONS http://www.ludgatefarms.com/tocanaan.htm

Waterfront Trail - Important meeting tonight. See http://canaaninstitute.org/bikeski/viewtopic.php?p=1333#1333 and or comments here http://canaaninstitute.org/bikeskiblog/?p=924#comment-635

There’s a 1 page write-up about Ithaca on page 22 of the June issue of Bicycling Magazine.

Our group: Come join us!  Bike ride trails Thursday May 7th 6:30 pm. Sunday Bike ride trails 11:00 am. Hike Tuesday May 12th 6:30 pm.
May 09 Ithaca Athletic Gear Swap Meeting - Sat, 5/9 (1-5pm, Cass Park Pavilion, Ithaca) DETAILS http://canaaninstitute.org/bikeski/viewtopic.php?p=1336#1336

Gas Drilling: 19 cattle found dead near a hydraulic fracturing gas drilling rig … http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20090429/NEWS01/904290368/1060

Who are the guys in camo? Spring Turkey hunting season May 1st to May 31st — DETAILS http://canaaninstitute.org/bikeskiblog/?p=929

Cell Towers - Recent News article here http://canaaninstitute.org/bikeski/viewtopic.php?p=1318#1318 EDITOR’S NOTE: What we are seeing is the tele-comm companies taking advantage of this public utility status. Instead of providing service in rural areas like the public utility status law originally intended, the tele-comm company’s are going for hi-profit neighborhoods with lots of potential voice and data customers like Ithaca Northeast

The Shindagin Hollow Association of Trailbuilders has regular trail work sessions — DETAILS!! http://canaaninstitute.org/bikeski/viewtopic.php?p=1322#1322

Local Phoebe Study asks for YOUR help in locating nests! http://canaaninstitute.org/bikeski/viewtopic.php?p=1313#1313

Marilyn is starting a new series of hikes on Thursday’s — she is calling the “hill hikes”. Info about the first hike is here http://canaaninstitute.org/bikeski/viewtopic.php?p=1310#1310

Brenda is leading women’s mt biking rides Tuesdays this started May 5th DETAILS http://canaaninstitute.org/bikeski/viewtopic.php?p=1330#1330

Meeting May 6th! Cayuga Waterfront Trail NEWS There is a key meeting and vote coming up on Wednesday May 6 at 7 pm regarding the Cayuga Waterfront Trail, and it’s very important for supporters of the trail to attend the meeting.  The meeting will take place at the City Hall in Ithaca, Common Council Chambers,  108 E. Green St. (across from the library).

The Cortland County SPCA “Paws to Taste” fundraiser May 30 http://canaaninstitute.org/bikeski/viewtopic.php?p=1319#1319

12.07.2008 - No new snow. If anyone wants to hike at 11:00, I’ll go. RSVP’s are helpful. It is still hunting season! (last day) so wear your orange. Bring yak-tracks or similar ice grabbing device for your boots - I think would be best - everything is frozen solid!!

If you like natural ice skating, today might be a good day! It is rare to get these conditions here, usually the snow wrecks the ice. See story below.

Seven of us ventured out on the trails here at Hammond Hill on the 2nd day of regular deer hunting season to hike and do some light maintainence on some of our favorite trails. The Hammond Hill trail system is maintained primarily by volunteers. Brenda, Marilyn, Pesto, Bianca, Sarah Rose, Corvid and myself all wearing hunter orange. Corvid was a bit fussy - maybe it was all the neon orange? We cleared a section of the FLT that is popular for that use during our ever shorter xc-ski season. We paused at “chocolate corner’ also know by other names: the big intersection of trails near the radio tower. We noticed here that some secret trail elves had hit the “Dan Karig Red Trail” with weed whackers and eliminated all the brambles on that favorite winter use only trail that parallels R2 north of the tower. We headed south on R2 and double checked that section. Then home to my place.

This is the announcement for the annual “big trail clean-up” event: a long standing tradition of all the different user groups getting together in anticipation of one of the shortest seasonal , but never-the-less most favored, uses of this multi-use trail system at Hammond Hill Forest: cross country skiing. The wet autumn snow storms often bring a slew of trail litter that needs picking up! Most of the summer trail users (mountain bikers, hikers, runners, dog walkers, horse back riders, etc..) also xc-ski or snow shoe - so this event usually gets a good turnout! Message follows from Jack Rueckheim, president of the Cayuga Nordic Ski Club.

“The Hammond Hill trails need some work.  The heavy snow has bent lots of tree limbs down across the trails.  A lot of them will spring back up after the snow melts, but some won’t.  There are also fallen trees across some trails.  The trails are pretty much unskiable right now (even though there was 4″ of snow up there yesterday).

We’ll be meeting at the Leonards’ (long driveway to the left just before the HH Rd. parking lot) at 9:00AM Sunday, Nov. 16 to clean it up.  We need lots of help and some tools such as weed whackers, loppers, pruners, and bow saws.

These trails will not get cleared unless we do it.  The DEC is not staffed for this.  Regular trail maintenance like this is done by volunteers only. So, if you can, please set aside some time to help out on Nov.16.” – Jack R